Top Biden advisor to visit ‘Israel’, Qatar eyeing captives release

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Axios
12 Nov 2023 09:59

Senior Middle East Advisor to President Biden will coordinate with NATO and European allies in Brussels before visiting "Israel", Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Qatar.

Palestinian children inspect their home after an Israeli airstrike reduced it to rubble (AFP via Getty Images)

Brett McGurk, Senior Middle East Advisor to President Biden, is reportedly set to travel to the Israeli entity and countries in the Middle East to discuss the war on Gaza and efforts to secure the release of captives held by the Resistance, Axios reported.

This trip is part of the Biden administration's unwavering support for the Israeli occupation. McGurk will coordinate with NATO and European allies in Brussels before visiting "Israel", Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Qatar.

Qatar has been mediating between the US, "Israel", and Hamas on the captives' issue. One discussed idea is a potential deal involving the release of Israeli women and children in exchange for thousands of Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons. Fuel access to Gaza is also under consideration.

It is worth noting that Amnesty International has reported a significant surge in the use of administrative detention by Israeli occupation authorities in the occupied West Bank, describing it as a form of arbitrary detention. Emergency measures facilitating inhumane and degrading treatment of prisoners have been extended, and incidents of torture and deaths in Israeli prisons are not being adequately investigated, according to the organization.

#Watch | Israeli occupation forces used freed prisoner Alaa Abu Hashhash, blindfolded, as a human shield during confrontations with #Palestinian Resistance fighters in al-Fawwar camp in occupied al-Khalil.#Palestine #WestBank pic.twitter.com/lcwzyun79b
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) November 10, 2023

Since October 7, over 2,200 Palestinians including women and children have been detained by Israeli occupation forces, as stated by the Palestinian Prisoners' Club. The total number of Palestinians held in administrative detention without charge or trial increased from 1,319 to 2,070 between October 1 and November 1, raising the total number of Palestinian prisoners to more than 10,000 people, as per human rights organizations and Palestinian officials.

Meanwhile, a deal is not imminent despite the ongoing discussions. The Biden administration has been focused on sending billions of dollars of weapons to "Israel" with daily coordination meetings with the Israelis, and McGurk, along with Jake Sullivan, has been actively involved in efforts to release captives. With Biden and Sullivan on the West Coast for the APEC summit, McGurk is being dispatched to directly engage in the region and Europe.

Is 'Israel' dragging the US into a multi-front war?

A former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter has lately told Al Mayadeen that Benjamin Netanyahu desperately seeks to get the United States involved in a multi-front war.

During a panel discussion, Ritter explained that Netanyahu is the only person who wants the Northern Front to open with Lebanon in order to draw the US into the war his government is leading on Gaza because he realizes that his forces are "not up to the task; they can’t defeat Hamas and Hezbollah at the same time."

In the same context, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah highlighted, on Saturday, during a ceremony commemorating Martyr's Day how "Israel" is under substantial pressure in terms of time while its allies are abandoning it one by one, and today, "it no longer has any supporters other than the US and British administrations."

"The United States is directing this battle and making every decision in it, and they should be under utmost pressure [...] The party that can stop this aggression is the one directing it, and that is the United States," he said.